If you’re a business owner, chances are you’re well ahead of the payment revolution. Do you even remember the last time you used dial-up technology?
When we’re talking about payment, we’re talking about wallets and we could easily be talking about the digital version as easily as the one you keep in your back pocket. While debit and credit cards are not in any imminent danger of being phased out, could their popularity be on the wane? There are still plenty of marketing campaigns, with offers of deferred payment and low interest rates, but new technology threatens their ubiquity.
This is a contributed post. Please refer to my disclosure for more information.
The Future Looks Digital
If you still find contactless payment a massive technological leap, then consider some of the other methods slowly moving payments towards a digital revolution.
The move towards instant debit is a call that all businesses will eventually need to answer. Fifty years ago we managed our accounts with our checkbooks, keeping up to date with the ins and outs of our accounts with the little stub on the side.
Now a few clicks on a mobile phone and you can check your account, pay your mortgage and book a holiday. We need to know what’s going on in our accounts instantly, night and day and this is reflected in our payment options.
In the main, checks have been phased out in favor of instant online payment, first with debit and credit card through a swipe and sign, then with online pin numbers and finally now with a simple tap of a card up to a set limit.
But we are now moving one step further forward with the latest way to pay in the form of phone payment.
This is clearly the front-runner for online payment in shops and stores and is fast becoming the quickest, easiest way to combine a superfast transaction with the ability to track your account activity and stay on top of your spending.
Meeting Customer Expectations
However, despite the advancement of payment for the customer, business owners still need to produce a credit card machine to take these modern methods and that doesn’t look set to change anytime soon.
Customers are beginning to expect all the options when checking out and the age of dial-up technology is well and truly over. Business start-up experts are predicting big things in the age of smart technology and artificial intelligence because we simply don’t have the patience to wait for payment methods that slow us down and cash? Are you even serious?
It seems certain that while technologies develop, so will the security around them. Thankfully, it’s even harder nowadays to commit fraud. With fingerprint and eye scanner technology making great strides in the consumer world every day, it seems certain that it’s just a matter of time before a simple eye scan with a hand held machine or fingerprint test will allow customers access to the most up to date payment technologies. It’s an exciting time to be in business and even more so to be a consumer.
Awesome read! Thank you for all the work you have been putting in!